No deal reached yet on relocating USL Pro soccer team to Louisville

Philadelphia Union midfielder Cristian Maidana plays the ball in front of Orlando City Soccer Club defender Kevin Molino on Wednesday during a match at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports complex.
(Photo:
David Manning-USA TODAY Sports
)

The city of Louisville and a group pushing to bring a minor-league professional soccer team to town have continued negotiations this month but have not reached a deal.

Chris Poynter, spokesperson for mayor Greg Fischer, said Thursday that “both sides are doing their due diligence” in ensuring long-term viability of the would-be franchise.

The Orlando City Soccer Club is seeking a host city for its United Soccer Leagues Professional Division club to start play in its new home in 2015. That year, Orlando will field a Major League Soccer team as part of MLS expansion, and the USL Pro team will operate as an affiliate with some players shared.

“We would love to make this work, and they would love to make this work,” Poynter said. “There’s a strong soccer culture here in Louisville, especially with younger adults. I think it would bring a new kind of entertainment we don’t currently have.”

Should Louisville commit to a team, the club would play its games in Louisville Slugger Field and schedule them around the Triple-A Louisville Bats’ home stands. The city has promised upgrades to facilities at Slugger Field to facilitate soccer, Poynter said.

But under what terms — and whether they allow the soccer team to profit — remains an issue.

Local architect Wayne Estopinal, a minority Orlando City owner, has spearheaded the negotiations and had hoped to inform his partners of a decision by the end of January. Earlier this week, Estopinal described the process as “urgent.”

From the start, when Orlando City’s president and chairman visited to meet with officials, markets other than Louisville have inquired about hosting the club.

“The revenue structure at Louisville Slugger Field is written in such a way that it’s to make sure the baseball team does well there,” Estopinal said last month. “Another entity coming in there — we basically are subleasing those facilities from the baseball team, and it makes it very difficult for us to see revenue from concessions, parking and advertising, which would be critical.”

Added Poynter on Thursday: “We’re working with investors to get to where we’re both comfortable and can seal the deal, but we’re just not there yet.”

Estopinal designed the University of Louisville’s new soccer stadium that’s under construction on Floyd Street, and he’s since mocked up plans for how soccer could work in Slugger Field. The architect drew the pitch from home plate down the first base line, with locker rooms in center field and most of the stadium’s seats within easy view of the action.

Switching between soccer and baseball configurations, which would involve flattening the pitcher’s mound and covering base paths, would take about a day.

A local soccer support group, The Coopers, has collected a list of those promising they’d buy season tickets for a USL Pro team. It has reached more than 1,300 pledges. And that’s without a team even committed to playing in Louisville.

USL has already passed a vote approving of Louisville should Orlando City decide upon it. The league’s pro division is the nation’s third-tier soccer organization, designated as Division III behind MLS (Division I) and the North American Soccer League (Division II).

“They’re very supportive of Louisville as a marketplace … so we’re delighted to have that pre-approved,” Rawlins, the Orlando City president, said during his Jan. 14 visit. “Now it’s down to the details — dotting the Is and crossing the Ts — and hopefully we can make this work in the next few months.”

Jonathan Lintner can be reached at (502) 582-4199; follow him on Twitter @JonathanLintner.